Like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, New York's sedan-style yellow taxis are iconic symbols of the city. But now the Ford Crown Victoria – the traditional American cab model for more than two decades – is on the road to extinction.

Last month, Ford announced it would stop making the Crown Vic (as it is affectionately known) from next year. Ascending in its place is the mighty Ford Escape (shaped like a Jeep) and the not-so-iconic Toyota Sienna (essentially a people carrier).

Climate change and the recession are the unlikely killers of the Crown Vic: as the economy soured and petrol prices rose, money-conscious cabbies turned away from the gas-guzzling model in favour of hybrid taxis, introduced by New York's green-minded mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in 2005. There are now 3,480 hybrids out of 13,237 yellow taxis on the road and, under new city rules prohibiting taxis over five-years-old, sedans will have disappeared by 2015.

Its slow demise is lamented in both the front and back seats. "I feel sad about it," says cabbie Edison Capa, 42. "This type of car is designed for this type of job – it's fast, comfortable and has a great big trunk."

"These new cars are garbage," barks 81-year-old attorney Murray Landsman as he climbs into Capa's cab in downtown Brooklyn. "I don't get in them unless I can't avoid it. They're too small and uncomfortable. And if you want to fit three [people] in the back – forget about it."

The Crown Vic's fall from grace is also symptomatic of something bigger. Immortalised in countless movies and TV shows such as Taxi driver, Woody Allen's Manhattan, and Sex and the City, New York's unmistakable yellow cab models – from the instantly recognisable "checker taxi" onwards – have always exuded American culture and power. Now, as globalisation tightens its grip, they increasingly look the same as cabs on the road from Tokyo to Toronto, except for that great asplash of colour. Joe Jackson